Curve ball help

[Ken B]

All due to the fact she can contort her hand the way she does.

That and a LOT of hard work. I can throw a pretty flat spinning curve, but it takes a lot of work to keep good spin in full motion. "Contorting" is a good way to describe it. The wrist needs to be really cupped to keep the axis vertical. To keep it from turning forward towards bullet, I find I need to really turn the thumb down and back. In my mind, it feels like a horizontal flip change! The effort to get it to move enough to be effective is not worth the effort from my perspective. If a kid understands spin orientation and is committed to mastering it, then I wish them well and will be glad to spend a little time going over it. I'd much rather focus on a good drop, change and rise. I also think that learning the curve can help teach the rise.

 

[shaker1]

Getting kids to understand spin is key. So many don't. Very rare to see kids, heck, college kids even, that have 3 distinct pitches. I can only think of 3 from the video I've seen of last year's WCWS. Each of these kids threw a drop, rise, and change.
Kleist-Parker-Plain

 

[cnardone]

Quoting Barry Bondstalking to Finch, “That ain’t no curveball. That’s a $&@ slider!”

I feel helpless just watching that video.